Mike, companies partner up on things without necessarily being owned/run by the same group of people as you are suggesting.
You are often asked directnic questions and say 'thats not part of my day to day business...'. Not that i'm suggesting directnic pushes the limits like the companies you are referring to because I know you don't, but i'm sure if we looked, we could find plenty of people who find YOUR business practices unethical.
In 3 years time you will probably add some cross sells or self installing diallers or whatever to your sites just like when you started spamming 3 years after everyone else ...
Sometimes you have to just pull your head in and realize you don't know everything about everybody else's business
